1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cigarette packages and packaging machines, and more particularly to a cigarette package having a spacer therein and an apparatus for installing a spacer in the ciagarette package.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Until rcently, cigarettes have been made with a typical or standard circumferential dimension of approximately 25 mm and packaged with twenty cigarettes per package. Slim or thin cigarettes having a circumferential dimension smaller than the more typical or conventional cigarettes are becoming popular. In addition, it is contemplated that fewer than twenty standard size cigarettes can be packaged in a pack. These changing preferences among smokers result in certain practical problems in the packages and packaging techniques. The individual cigarette packages are required to have a tax stamp applied thereto at the top or bottom end. The tax stamps are applied by stamping machines of known conventional construction, and the tax stamps themselves are of a defined minimum size. Therefore, regardless of the size or number of cigarettes in a package, the top and/or bottom end of the package must be of a minimum transverse or package depth dimension sufficient to receive the tax stamp. However, when cigarettes of a very small circumferential dimension are included in such a package in a reasonable or conventional quantity, there is a volume or space within the package left vacant. This is unacceptable because the thusly packaged smaller than typical cigarettes would move within the package.